Chapter 5:
"The Plot Thickens"
That afternoon, after a nurse had changed his head bandages, Dick Grayson dosed off holding Barbara's hand. When he was asleep, she gently removed her hand and placed it aside him on the bed and then quietly left the room. After using the washroom, she met the doctor in the hallway, who just happened to be on his way to Dick's room.
"Oh, Ms. Gordon, can I speak with you a moment?" She agreed, and they went to a secluded place to talk. She informed the doctor that Dick was sleeping, so it was not the best time to talk with him. He understood, and then said, "I have some additional news regarding Mr. Grayson. When we were removing the neuro-inhibitors from both hemispheres, we took a sample of fluid from his brain, and we also came up with something very odd: minute traces of a neurotoxin used in relation to sedation."
Barbara was shocked. "Did you cross-reference it with the drugs Dick was talking?"
"Yes, but none corresponded with any of them. This was additional, working alone. Normally minute doses of similar drugs wear off soon after they are administered, but this was a revolving neurotoxin with replicating properties, so complex that it acted biochemically like a virus. But its inert now, it won't harm him. We've added a drug to his IV that will brake up the rest of the traces."
"Thanks good to hear, doctor."
"This case is just getting more and more interesting," he said. "Wouldn't you say?"
She agreed. The doctor left, and as soon as he was out of sight and earshot, she made a call to Tim Drake.
He immediately answered.
After she told him what the doctor had revealed, Tim seemed to have a theory already, telling her that the "fake out" Jason had claimed, may have actually been two-fold, with two snipers, and both were crack-shots. By luring Dick in, and to a certain spot, the snipers fired at the same time from building perches, judging the angles precisely, aiming for his head. Within the bullets, were blood capsules that spattered on impact, each containing a miniature dart that could've administered the neurotoxin that rendered him unconscious and for him to appear near dead. This way no one wold question when they performed the surgery to save his life.
"That sounds very plausible, Tim, thank you. Now, all we have to figure out is who and why."
"I'm working on that we speak, but Bruce said we have to keep this internal, so it's only me at the moment. Bruce is out on patrol, Damian is back in Bludhaven being" —he snickered— "Nightwing Junior…and Jason is, well, Jason is Jason."
"I think Damian's archetype is admirable, Tim," she said seriously. "He really cares about Dick, and since the events that nearly destroyed Bludhaven, and Bruce's start-up restoration of the city, criminals had begun to crawl out of the sewers again. Bludhaven needs a hero. So please, don't mock him."
"Sorry, I didn't think it was—anyway" —he almost sounded irate— "if I have any news, I'll let you know."
"Thank you," and she ended the call, then returned to Dick's room.
x x x
Damian was crouched on the edge of a two-story building dressed as his newest persona Nightwing Junior when he got the call from Tim Drake about the neurotoxin detected in Grayson's brain fluid, and his own theory of how it got there. The toxin was inert now, he was told, but who did it and the lengths they went through to do such a thing was still a mystery.
"I think your theory has huge merit, Drake, thanks," he said, then ended the call, slipping his cell into a hip pouch attached to a belt. He wasn't much into talking much. The information was vastly important, but so what he was doing at the moment.
He was watching a drug deal go down in a bad part of town.
His position was secluded in the shadows, so he wouldn't be seen.
The deal was happening in an alley, atypical of where these sorts of things went down. There was a shadowy figure in a dark hoodie and a buyer, giving money to the dealer. He watched the whole thing through a pair of binoculars. He'd let the deal end, then he'd not only bust the buyer but also apprehend the dealer. There was one thing he hated and that was drugs. They served no beneficial purpose unless medicinal. Recreational drugs were just bad for the body and served no one else but the criminal underworld.
He had gotten word that a new drug was making its way on the streets and distributed by a new-and-up-and coming crime junkie. Damian didn't know much about it, but the effects were similar to marijuana, causing hallucinations if taken in large qualities. But this was laced with a much more powerful content than the normal THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), a drug that caused a euphoric high.
He waited for the pair to part company, then he shot a tether line and jumped down, and then shouldered the buyer against the wall, forcing the young man to drop his stash, which was a large big bag of weed. "Shit, man! What the hell?" the young man protested. "Hey! Aren't you that—"
"Yes, I am! And you're under arrest for buying and the possession of pot!"
The young man put up his hands. "Woah, hey! You don't understand! I'm not using the stuff, I just bought it for evidence!"
"Evidence?" —Tt— "Don't pull my leg!"
"He's telling the truth," came a voice slightly muffled from behind a mask. From the alley came Red Hood with the dealer in hand, raised slightly off the ground, his legs dangling. The older, scruffy man—dealer—shrugged to no avail. "Hey, you little pipsqueak, you nearly ruined things. Go play superhero somewhere else!" Damian/Nightwing Junior looked at Jason Todd/Red Hood confused. Red Hood handed the dealer to the other, literally tossing him over, and said: "Take care of him. This kid and I need to have a talk."
While the other held the dealer, and even put him in handcuffs, Red Hood and Nightwing Junior went around the corner into the alley, and almost immediately, Jason pushed Damian against the brick wall. "What the hell are you doing? I thought it was a joke, you dressing up as junior Dickiebird. But I'm shocked. You and Bruce are a duo, this is a dangerous line of work for just a kid."
"I'm not a kid, I'm thirteen, and I have more than enough experience to be out here," Damian retorted. "So, get out of my way!"
Jason clutched Damian by the collar as if he was a dog. "You're supposed to be in Gotham looking after Dick, not here lurking around rooftops. Bludhaven is just getting its legs back after nearly being destroyed, but the gangs and criminals are also coming back with a vengeance, trying to assert control before the politicians and bureaucrats do. How is Dick, by the way?"
"Just fine," Damian replied conversationally, then shrugged against Todd's grip. Either it was because of Damian's wiggling or out of family respect, Todd dropped him. Damian straightened his tights. He then told Todd about Tim's theory. "This is bigger than any of us thought, Todd. Why are you here in Bludhaven?"
"Hunting down drug dealers, followed his guy from Gotham City," he said, "and you nearly ruined everything. This guy's going to lead me to one of the main distribution facilities hidden somewhere in this area now that I have him. I may smoke, but I'm not keen on this pot. It's laced with a chemical that'll kill, similar to something the Scarecrow's peddling, yet not as psychotropic. I'm also looking into finding evidence of Scarecrow's newest 'fear germ' here, and the people this guy works for may know something."
"Need any help?"
"No, your antics have already made a name for yourself in Bludhaven, so I don't need any heat in what I'm doing. Jack, out there, is on loan to me from the New Bludhaven PD. We have an understanding and I've been deputized. They need my help to clean up the streets, and in turn, they'll expunge my criminal misdeeds in Bludhaven. Oddly enough, when the city was nearly destroyed, none of the criminal records were. They were all stored on a special server out of the city."
"Sucks to be you," Damian remarked caustically.
x x x
Dick Grayson's eyes slowly opened. His head was resting on his right side and the first thing he saw when he awoke was the face of Barbara. "I go to sleep for a little while and I wake up in Heaven," he said with a smile.
She smiled back, looking up from a novel. "Don't get fresh, sweet prince." Then suddenly, she sniffed the air. "Speaking about fresh, when was the last time you had a bath or shower?"
Dick smelled himself. "I don't remember, but I don't smell that bad, do I?"
"If you can't remember, then it's about time," she said. Bruce had requested one of the best private rooms in the hospital for Dick and he got it. With it came a private shower/bath. "Since all the nurses are busy, I'll help you."
Dick smiled playfully. "Do I get full service?"
She smiled back. "Yes, I'll bath and wash you as if you my little baby boy." She helped him to his feet and lead him to the bathroom. She put a shower cap over his head and then helped him strip. Then she looked at him in the buff. "Jon Kent wasn't kidding. Oh my god, Richard John Grayson! How the heck did you gain so much weight?" He looked himself over. "It's not that much, maybe twenty pounds or so? I haven't been myself lately."
She slapped his stomach and he flinched. "You've been drinking too much beer, and you haven't been doing your exercises, or shaved where it counts, have you?" Dick's mouth gaped shocked that he was being scolded. It wasn't his fault. Then she smirked, and knew that she was teasing him. "But, I still love you, Dick Grayson; every ounce and every hair," and they kissed.
Feeling a poke, she looked down. "Oops, sometimes it has a mind of its own," he said.
"At least you're thinking with the right head."
"Can I have my bath now, Nurse?"
She turned on the shower to the perfect temperature. It was a walk-in shower and bath, but she opted for a shower. "I'm going to work on you from head to toe, Mr. Grayson, Patient in Room #2, until you're as clean as a whistle, and then some."
Shutting the bathroom door, they both got into the shower together.
To be continued…
